The Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Kuwait contains 23 galleries, 800 exhibits, a 4D theater and a 1 million-liter aquarium. Becoming the world's largest museum complex, the centre is a cultural and financial staple of Kuwait City. It was conceived and constructed over a five year period, headed up by none-other than Electrosonic.
The launch was such a success that Electrosonic was awarded the 2019 Best Museum Project by Commercial Integrator's Integration Award. Respected by the industry, enjoyed by consumer, and admired by the creative, the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre stands as an achievement of technical and creative skill. But how exactly was it pulled off from start to finish?
To learn more about the design and construction process, host Daniel Litwin spoke with Simon George, Senior Entertainment Consultant, and Nerijus Linauskas, Senior Project Manager for Electrosonic.
On this episode of Fusion, Simon and Nerijus broke down the initial pitch, the process for preparing and designing the multitude of exhibits, and what technical challenges had to be overcome to pull of the imagined scope for the centre.
With a project this large, it was important that the team stayed passionate about the project during the entire five year process.
"I think the key thing that needs to be understood is the people designing these museums are passionate about what they're doing and you very quickly become passionate about the project and excited about the project. And that is really a key element," Simon said. "If you don't have that passion for it you are never going to design something, you need to get under the skin of it and really appreciate what they are trying to say."
Collaboration between all of the teams was extremely important because of the large scope and time-frame of the project. Luckily, finding inspiration for that collaboration wasn’t a problem.
"The collaboration was like nothing else I’ve ever worked on...We all had the same aim which was basically to make this the biggest museum in the world," Nerijus said.
Beyond that, Simon made the case for the Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre being a fantastic showcase for the AV industry.
“...because there is a ‘what you provide is put a tv on the wall’ and some people can think like that and so this was a showcase for the AV community to show that no there's an awful lot more we can do than that," he said.